I could have gone with The post wherein I muse about the cyclical nature of life, the universe, and everything but I thought it might be too long.
Today is, in fact, my blogoversary. Its hard to believe that its been a full year since I first starting posting in my tiny corner of the blogosphere. OP was a little different then. A bit more... orange. I went purple in October. At that time I was raiding mostly on my priest and orange is just not a priestly color. I think purple suits both priests and warlocks, which is why I kept it for my links when I went black in December.
A year ago, OP stood as much for "over powered" (which warlocks always are, of course) as it did for opportunity. I like to play up to the stereotypical things said about warlocks. Most importantly, we hate rogues. I learned that ages ago on Arthas, a PVP server. Secondly, we do not get along with mages. We view them as weaklings - glass canons who have no way to escape a beating if something gets close enough to them. They view us as power-hungry and sloppy - snatching at any glimmer of power and prestige. We fight over gear - especially now that mages and warlocks are the only classes that need +hit cloth armor.
Finally, we are the unquestioned gods of caster dps. Even when we're not.
More recently, I have tried to lessen the focus on warlocks. I plan to raid on my priest and, while my warlock will still have plenty to do, OP is about all of my experiences and opportunities in WoW. See wat i did ther?
Even though Cataclysm has been out for nearly a month now, I think everyone is still adapting to the changes. The dungeons are harder. Crowd Control is a requirement, rather than a nice bonus or a neat trick. AOE has all but disappeared in the standard dungeon environment.
This being the New Year, we are surrounded on all sides by change. Perversely, I am flummoxed by the things that haven't changed.
A full year has passed since I was celebrating reaching level 80 on my warlock. Now level 80 is only a milestone in the sense that, after you reach it, you only have 5 more levels to go. I didn't have a lot of spare gold floating around, so I was carefully searching out each drop from the dungeons and trying to get enough emblems of triumph together for any new pieces. I was trying to make sure I leveled my Enchanting high enough to be useful for a raider and I had some help getting enough Dream Shards to collect the high-level patterns.
We took an extremely ragtag pug into Naxxramas and, while it wasn't a complete fiasco, it certainly had its moments of terrible noobness.
Now, I do have some spare gold floating around but it usually gets spent on leveling my Jewelcrafting. I am still carefully searching out each drop I can get from the normal dungeons. I am herding together all the justice points I can for other items. I am rep-grinding with Therazane and Hyjal. I am doing everything I was a year ago.
Our bouts of noobness currently occur in dungeons, but we may get up to some raids in the near future. One can only hope.
A year ago I was getting started on a new project. The "Mara will has a Healer" project. I leveled a dwarf priest, spending most of my time after level 40 in a Random Dungeon learning the fine art of Disco.
Now I'm considering a new project... perhaps several new projects. I haven't ruled out a "Mara will has a Tank" project, though I'm not sure its in the best interest of my blood pressure. I'm still warming up A. D. Temple's Azeroth. Its a struggle to determine where to start, but I think I've got a handle on that now. It will be... an interesting trip to say the least.
A year ago we were fumbling with the idea of a raiding guild. That hasn't changed at all. We gained and lost members. We made great progress at the end. Our triumphs as a guild are a great treasure. Memento is due for that guild-wide meeting to discuss our future plans tomorrow. There's plenty to improve upon, I think. I believe (hope?) we will continue to fight the good fight.
Here's to another year! May all your mobs be weak and all your drops be epic.
Showing posts with label Other. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Other. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Things are Shiny
I had to wait a couple of days to start Cataclysm, so this marks MY FIRST WEEK in the new expansion. Of course, I'm having an absolute blast. With this also being the end of the semester - also the end of school, period, for awhile - I can drag the fiance back into Azeroth with me. He's not quite as excited as I am, but that doesn't mean we haven't had tons of fun.
This post is broken up into sections, mostly for my own wandering train of thought.
-Mara and Sen are Coming Down the Mountain
-Aioka is Sinking into Vashj'ir
-Under Construction
-Blog Woes
-A. D. Temple's Azeroth
-Mara and Sen are Coming Down the Mountain
My fiance plays an Arcane Mage, Senach. I like to say its proof that Mages and Warlocks can get along... sometimes. Leveling as two casters might sound like a goofy, inefficient idea but we've had 80 (now 82) levels of practice.
I level almost exclusively as Demonology. So we have Flaag, my mighty felguard, to do some tanking if we run into trouble. Sen cranks out the big numbers so things die quickly. I supply the slow damage for adds or extra mobs and the healing for the tank.
Occasionally, if we come up against a "Kill X number of mobs", we'll split up and each tackle half the group separately. Usually, though, we prefer to kill things and experience the quests together.
However, that didn't stop Sen from continuing on while Mara played with some new friends:
Sooooo Cute!
What have they been feeding you?
He does tricks!
I am NOT rubbing that belly!
We did catch up shortly after that to check this place out:
-Aioka is Sinking into Vashj'ir
Meanwhile, Aioka was leveling through theaquarium underwater world of Vashj'ir. In some ways, its a complete nightmare. Full 3D environments and I don't always mix well. Occasionally, when something is attacking me from afar I just have to sit and eat the first bolts of damage just to see where they are coming from.
On the other hand, I think the storyline in Vashj'ir is better than Mount Hyjal. It has great continuity through each of the three sections of Vashj'ir, its deeply engaging, and it actually creates a world where you care about the NPCs around you.
The most common complaint about Vashj'ir that I've heard is that there are too many gathering quests. I can understand the frustration. Having Aioka out on her own means I don't have to share gathering quests with anyone else. And the only one that I found was truly terrible was Fish Lure.
My biggest complaint about Vashj'ir is that, if you're strictly following the storyline, you won't hit the Throne of Tides until the very end. It's extremely impactful that way, but a little less on exposure to the new dungeons.
My first group in the Throne of Tides was worth the wait. Our tank was level 80 and extremely squishy, but the druid healer was on the ball. Most of the time. I went in as a DPS and I am actually more scared now to try healing that I was before. I ran out of mana faster than the healer did. Very frightening. But my Hymn of Hope saw some use. I used my bubble when I thought it might be useful. And I used bandages and health potions on myself to ease the healer's mind.
Didn't stop the squishy tank from dying a lot. But between me, a hunter, and a shaman we were able to bounce aggro around enough to keep all of from eating big damage and the healer kept us alive long enough to kill things.
On trash, its kind of insignificant.
On a boss, its a trip and a half. On one boss, the tank went down at 70%. We dps bounced it around until 4%. Our totally awesome druid healer took it down the rest of the way. It was amazing. I'm not sure I've ever seen anything quite like it.
-Under Construction
Some of you might have noticed that this is OP's second major make-over this year. Memento's guild site is under similar construction. We've been trying to get things shaped up for the new expansion. Not that we're anywhere near raiding, yet, but I've think we've got several things to decide on and hammer out before we're ready to tackle anything.
Memento essentially floundered its way through Wrath. Never having a complete 10-man group it was difficult (at best) to accomplish things. For some reason or another, none of our recruits really hung around very long and I think this is something the guild needs to discuss. Being as small as we are, I think we can arrange an all-guild meeting to discuss where we want to go and what we want to be doing.
Additionally, with most of our members in college, it's difficult to determine a night and time where everyone is available. I'm trying to find out at the moment how many nights a week everyone is interested in raiding. It seems obvious to be that our once-a-week attempts at ICC were fairly ineffective. Now, however, several of members have graduated and have their evenings free. Hopefully, we can find more than one night that fits into everyone's schedule.
Memento's distribution of responsibilities is almost nonexistent. Our GM is mostly hands off and everything goes through the Council. As a single body, the Council is expected to accomplish or delegate anything that needs to be done. However, Council members are pretty lax in both identifying things that need to be accomplished and... accomplishing them.
I took it upon myself (maybe rightly, maybe wrongly) to make changes to the Guild Website. Frankly, I think it looked terrible and the forum system is a bit unwieldy (my fault, since I designed it the first time) and Ann and I were just generally dissatisfied with it.
As far as that goes, Ann and I weren't totally sure we'd be sticking with wowstead. If you have a suggestion for a new/different/better guild website provider I would be delighted to hear it.
-Blog Woes
Closer to home, we have the updates here. I think that my dissatisfaction with how my blog looks has a lot to do with my... not knowing what I want to do with it. OP started with a specific purpose - to talk about how I, being level capped for the first time, was handling the multi-faceted beast that is raiding. That was almost a year ago.
Now, I can talk about being level capped for the second time. I could talk about my happy-meal-sized guild and how it handles the transition from Wrath raiding to Cataclysm raiding. I can talk about having a priest as my primary raider. I can talk about Marariel and her adventures in solo'ing/duo'ing content.
I could branch out some with some projects. I could level some tanks and/or some more healers and see where that takes me. I could include some story/fanfiction elements.
My demonology guide was well received. I could scour the internet resources and put together a few more.
What would you like to see?
-A. D. Temple's Azeroth
My first project that I would like to introduce is called A. D. Temple's Azeroth. A. D. Temple is a renown historian from the story I occasionally get to work on. He travels the world investigating historical sites, writes books about the ancient gods and goddesses, and provides assistance to a particular team of cartographers, mostly just for fun.
What I'd like to do is a profile of each zone in Azeroth. I plan to talk about its history, its recent changes (omg, cataclysm), its settlements and people. I have no idea if other people will find this interesting or not. At the least it will be interesting for me and I hope to learn a lot about the world we all (virtually) live in.
This post is broken up into sections, mostly for my own wandering train of thought.
-Mara and Sen are Coming Down the Mountain
-Aioka is Sinking into Vashj'ir
-Under Construction
-Blog Woes
-A. D. Temple's Azeroth
-Mara and Sen are Coming Down the Mountain
My fiance plays an Arcane Mage, Senach. I like to say its proof that Mages and Warlocks can get along... sometimes. Leveling as two casters might sound like a goofy, inefficient idea but we've had 80 (now 82) levels of practice.
I level almost exclusively as Demonology. So we have Flaag, my mighty felguard, to do some tanking if we run into trouble. Sen cranks out the big numbers so things die quickly. I supply the slow damage for adds or extra mobs and the healing for the tank.
Occasionally, if we come up against a "Kill X number of mobs", we'll split up and each tackle half the group separately. Usually, though, we prefer to kill things and experience the quests together.
However, that didn't stop Sen from continuing on while Mara played with some new friends:
We did catch up shortly after that to check this place out:
-Aioka is Sinking into Vashj'ir
Meanwhile, Aioka was leveling through the
On the other hand, I think the storyline in Vashj'ir is better than Mount Hyjal. It has great continuity through each of the three sections of Vashj'ir, its deeply engaging, and it actually creates a world where you care about the NPCs around you.
The most common complaint about Vashj'ir that I've heard is that there are too many gathering quests. I can understand the frustration. Having Aioka out on her own means I don't have to share gathering quests with anyone else. And the only one that I found was truly terrible was Fish Lure.
My biggest complaint about Vashj'ir is that, if you're strictly following the storyline, you won't hit the Throne of Tides until the very end. It's extremely impactful that way, but a little less on exposure to the new dungeons.
My first group in the Throne of Tides was worth the wait. Our tank was level 80 and extremely squishy, but the druid healer was on the ball. Most of the time. I went in as a DPS and I am actually more scared now to try healing that I was before. I ran out of mana faster than the healer did. Very frightening. But my Hymn of Hope saw some use. I used my bubble when I thought it might be useful. And I used bandages and health potions on myself to ease the healer's mind.
Didn't stop the squishy tank from dying a lot. But between me, a hunter, and a shaman we were able to bounce aggro around enough to keep all of from eating big damage and the healer kept us alive long enough to kill things.
On trash, its kind of insignificant.
On a boss, its a trip and a half. On one boss, the tank went down at 70%. We dps bounced it around until 4%. Our totally awesome druid healer took it down the rest of the way. It was amazing. I'm not sure I've ever seen anything quite like it.
-Under Construction
Some of you might have noticed that this is OP's second major make-over this year. Memento's guild site is under similar construction. We've been trying to get things shaped up for the new expansion. Not that we're anywhere near raiding, yet, but I've think we've got several things to decide on and hammer out before we're ready to tackle anything.
Memento essentially floundered its way through Wrath. Never having a complete 10-man group it was difficult (at best) to accomplish things. For some reason or another, none of our recruits really hung around very long and I think this is something the guild needs to discuss. Being as small as we are, I think we can arrange an all-guild meeting to discuss where we want to go and what we want to be doing.
Additionally, with most of our members in college, it's difficult to determine a night and time where everyone is available. I'm trying to find out at the moment how many nights a week everyone is interested in raiding. It seems obvious to be that our once-a-week attempts at ICC were fairly ineffective. Now, however, several of members have graduated and have their evenings free. Hopefully, we can find more than one night that fits into everyone's schedule.
Memento's distribution of responsibilities is almost nonexistent. Our GM is mostly hands off and everything goes through the Council. As a single body, the Council is expected to accomplish or delegate anything that needs to be done. However, Council members are pretty lax in both identifying things that need to be accomplished and... accomplishing them.
I took it upon myself (maybe rightly, maybe wrongly) to make changes to the Guild Website. Frankly, I think it looked terrible and the forum system is a bit unwieldy (my fault, since I designed it the first time) and Ann and I were just generally dissatisfied with it.
As far as that goes, Ann and I weren't totally sure we'd be sticking with wowstead. If you have a suggestion for a new/different/better guild website provider I would be delighted to hear it.
-Blog Woes
Closer to home, we have the updates here. I think that my dissatisfaction with how my blog looks has a lot to do with my... not knowing what I want to do with it. OP started with a specific purpose - to talk about how I, being level capped for the first time, was handling the multi-faceted beast that is raiding. That was almost a year ago.
Now, I can talk about being level capped for the second time. I could talk about my happy-meal-sized guild and how it handles the transition from Wrath raiding to Cataclysm raiding. I can talk about having a priest as my primary raider. I can talk about Marariel and her adventures in solo'ing/duo'ing content.
I could branch out some with some projects. I could level some tanks and/or some more healers and see where that takes me. I could include some story/fanfiction elements.
My demonology guide was well received. I could scour the internet resources and put together a few more.
What would you like to see?
-A. D. Temple's Azeroth
My first project that I would like to introduce is called A. D. Temple's Azeroth. A. D. Temple is a renown historian from the story I occasionally get to work on. He travels the world investigating historical sites, writes books about the ancient gods and goddesses, and provides assistance to a particular team of cartographers, mostly just for fun.
What I'd like to do is a profile of each zone in Azeroth. I plan to talk about its history, its recent changes (omg, cataclysm), its settlements and people. I have no idea if other people will find this interesting or not. At the least it will be interesting for me and I hope to learn a lot about the world we all (virtually) live in.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
At the End of an Era
If I were starting a wow account for the first time, with all the information I know now, I wonder if I would have picked the same class/race combination to start with.
This thought strikes me from time to time. On the whole, I think the answer is no. As much as I enjoy playing my warlock, it's not what I would now recommend for my younger self if I could step back in time and advise myself on what my first character should be. I would have told my younger self, "Listen. You're going to have a lot of alts. A lot, a lot of alts. And what you will learn to call altoholism, is really just another way for you to say 'sometimes I get bored'. Save yourself some grief and start with a hybrid class." Regardless of the fact that my younger self would not have understood much of that.
This is not to say that there is no value in altoholism. My discovery of hybrid classes has not made me any less likely to create new characters (of both the hybrid and the pure variety). I would like to acknowledge that my use of the word 'altoholism' - sometimes I get bored - may not be the same as another usage or even the generally accepted use of the term. Perhaps it is simply that my use of the term 'altoholism' is lacking in definition.
It would also have been nice for someone to discuss with younger-me the Tank-Healer-DPS triangle. I doubt very much that I would have found the idea of a tank very appealing. But I might have thought that picking a class that could dps and heal would be beneficial. Having the option to switch later if I didn't enjoy my current role should have been a powerful motivator in picking a class.
Why wasn't it?
As much as these thoughts occasionally plague me, I would not actually trade my warlock or my first leveling experience for anything else. If I were given the option to do it all over again (three years ago, of course) I wouldn't take it. I learned and leveled at the pace that I learned and leveled at and that's all it is.
It does, however, generate some other interesting questions.
Does caster dps feel natural to me because my first character was a caster? Or was my first character a caster because caster dps feels natural to me?
I've always favored the mage stereotype in video games. Disciples, Lords of Magic, Final Fantasy... whatever it was, if I played it I played a caster. It wasn't uncommon for me to dabble in the dark side even then. My first character that I ever played in a tabletop RPG was a "Dark Cleric". I'm not sure such a thing even existed at the time, but my DM assisted me in putting a "dark" twist on each of my spells. Grant Life became Steal Life, Cure Poison became Poison, you get the idea.
So, perhaps a warlock was not such an impetuous choice for a first character after all.
Which makes my decisions for Cataclysm that much more difficult.
I'm extremely proud of what I've accomplished with my warlock this expansion. Marariel killed the Lich King. The dungeons I wasn't able to see while leveling - namely everything but Scholomance, Hellfire Ramparts, and the Northrend Dungeons - Marariel solo'ed. It may have been out of order timewise, but after hitting 80 Marariel visisted Karazhan, the Black Temple, and Magtheridon's Lair. Marariel befriended the Netherwing dragonflight. Marariel became an Ambassador of the Alliance.
In many ways, Marariel will always be my main.
But in a week's time, it won't be Marariel powering through the levels to 85. It won't be Marariel racing through the dungeons and quests to start the next gearing race. It won't be Marariel farming loot, experience, and reputation to get ready for raiding all over again.
Marariel will be taking it slow. Exploring a shattered world takes time. The fact that Marariel leveled and learned slowly in the beginning is not something to look back on with regret, but rather a learning experience for the future. Everything I learned about warlocks in that way I learned by doing. Not by reading the forums, Elitist Jerks, or any other guide. I'm looking forward to getting that experience back.
As for rushing towards the level cap, the heroic dungeons, and the shiny new raids - there's an alt for that. Aioka will be running the race - questing as shadow and queueing as discipline - to, hopefully, be in place as a healer whenever Memento is ready to start raiding again.
I know a lot of people are switching their mains for Cataclysm. I am... reluctant to call it that. Warlockery is near and dear to my heart and being a Shadow Priest is not always comparable. However, as I evaluate my experiences I am starting to recognize that flexibility in raiding is important to me. I want that.
Cataclysm is here. Whatever it is that you want, pursue it with everything you have.
Good luck.
I'll see you on the other side.
This thought strikes me from time to time. On the whole, I think the answer is no. As much as I enjoy playing my warlock, it's not what I would now recommend for my younger self if I could step back in time and advise myself on what my first character should be. I would have told my younger self, "Listen. You're going to have a lot of alts. A lot, a lot of alts. And what you will learn to call altoholism, is really just another way for you to say 'sometimes I get bored'. Save yourself some grief and start with a hybrid class." Regardless of the fact that my younger self would not have understood much of that.
This is not to say that there is no value in altoholism. My discovery of hybrid classes has not made me any less likely to create new characters (of both the hybrid and the pure variety). I would like to acknowledge that my use of the word 'altoholism' - sometimes I get bored - may not be the same as another usage or even the generally accepted use of the term. Perhaps it is simply that my use of the term 'altoholism' is lacking in definition.
It would also have been nice for someone to discuss with younger-me the Tank-Healer-DPS triangle. I doubt very much that I would have found the idea of a tank very appealing. But I might have thought that picking a class that could dps and heal would be beneficial. Having the option to switch later if I didn't enjoy my current role should have been a powerful motivator in picking a class.
Why wasn't it?
As much as these thoughts occasionally plague me, I would not actually trade my warlock or my first leveling experience for anything else. If I were given the option to do it all over again (three years ago, of course) I wouldn't take it. I learned and leveled at the pace that I learned and leveled at and that's all it is.
It does, however, generate some other interesting questions.
Does caster dps feel natural to me because my first character was a caster? Or was my first character a caster because caster dps feels natural to me?
I've always favored the mage stereotype in video games. Disciples, Lords of Magic, Final Fantasy... whatever it was, if I played it I played a caster. It wasn't uncommon for me to dabble in the dark side even then. My first character that I ever played in a tabletop RPG was a "Dark Cleric". I'm not sure such a thing even existed at the time, but my DM assisted me in putting a "dark" twist on each of my spells. Grant Life became Steal Life, Cure Poison became Poison, you get the idea.
So, perhaps a warlock was not such an impetuous choice for a first character after all.
Which makes my decisions for Cataclysm that much more difficult.
I'm extremely proud of what I've accomplished with my warlock this expansion. Marariel killed the Lich King. The dungeons I wasn't able to see while leveling - namely everything but Scholomance, Hellfire Ramparts, and the Northrend Dungeons - Marariel solo'ed. It may have been out of order timewise, but after hitting 80 Marariel visisted Karazhan, the Black Temple, and Magtheridon's Lair. Marariel befriended the Netherwing dragonflight. Marariel became an Ambassador of the Alliance.
In many ways, Marariel will always be my main.
But in a week's time, it won't be Marariel powering through the levels to 85. It won't be Marariel racing through the dungeons and quests to start the next gearing race. It won't be Marariel farming loot, experience, and reputation to get ready for raiding all over again.
Marariel will be taking it slow. Exploring a shattered world takes time. The fact that Marariel leveled and learned slowly in the beginning is not something to look back on with regret, but rather a learning experience for the future. Everything I learned about warlocks in that way I learned by doing. Not by reading the forums, Elitist Jerks, or any other guide. I'm looking forward to getting that experience back.
As for rushing towards the level cap, the heroic dungeons, and the shiny new raids - there's an alt for that. Aioka will be running the race - questing as shadow and queueing as discipline - to, hopefully, be in place as a healer whenever Memento is ready to start raiding again.
I know a lot of people are switching their mains for Cataclysm. I am... reluctant to call it that. Warlockery is near and dear to my heart and being a Shadow Priest is not always comparable. However, as I evaluate my experiences I am starting to recognize that flexibility in raiding is important to me. I want that.
Cataclysm is here. Whatever it is that you want, pursue it with everything you have.
Good luck.
I'll see you on the other side.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
It was better not knowing
As I'm sure everyone is aware, the huge patch dropped on Tuesday. Last night's raid was a bit lolful as a result, but overall successful. I wasn't sure if I was going to make it, because this week is incredibly hectic. And when it started to look like I might be able to make I planed to go on my priest. I knew precisely what I wanted out of my Discipline spec and the mechanics haven't changed overmuch - just my efficiency with them.
Not that I don't know precisely what I want out of Mara's specs. I just want considerably more time to spend analyzing her gear and rotation before jumping into a raid. A weekend project, perhaps.
However, in the realm of honesty, that's not the only reason I wasn't ready to log on to Mara. I got wind of a terrible tragedy earlier in the week. My demons have gone missing... to be replaced by impostors... and I didn't want to face that.
I read an interesting short story last week about two people who get caught in a Time Loop. They are forced to repeat the same day over and over again. The physics of this (theoretical or invented, I'm not completely sure having not done any research) is quite intriguing. The Time Loop is centralized to their neighborhood. That is, the rest of the world is moving on quite normally but their neighborhood is isolated and forced into an infinitely repeating loop of one Thursday.
This starts to cause a build up of entropy and heat and things start to break down. Things don't really fall apart... they just disappear. Small things first - like papers, pens, etc. Then books, chairs. Eventually walls. There are holes in things. But not like holes you can see through or put a finger through... holes in the reality.
Then the same thing starts to happen to people. And the main character starts dreading waking up each Thursday morning. Because he doesn't know what will be different. What will be missing today? Who will be missing today?
The reason this story is so compelling - quite apart from the interesting physics and the suspenseful and evoking storyline - is that is exactly how I felt when I found out the demon names had been reset.
I didn't want to log in and discover my companions of several years were now gone. I didn't want to be another warlock posting in the lost and found:
"Have you seen my Flaag? He's a cantankerous dude with a huge axe, but he's been protecting me from Big and Scaries for 30 levels now."
"Missing: one dutiful felhunter named Shaan. Tries to eat Ice Barriers off me when I poke Sindragosa with a stick. Cannot finish ICC without him."
Its really very hard to explain, but this has devastated warlocks. The good news is the demon names will revert to what they were before the patch on the next maintenance day. The impostors are temporary.
I still don't know which of my demons are currently taking a vacation, but its a huge relief to know they will be coming home on Tuesday. It was better not knowing who was missing. It will be easier to face the impostors knowing that my minions will be back soon.
Not that I don't know precisely what I want out of Mara's specs. I just want considerably more time to spend analyzing her gear and rotation before jumping into a raid. A weekend project, perhaps.
However, in the realm of honesty, that's not the only reason I wasn't ready to log on to Mara. I got wind of a terrible tragedy earlier in the week. My demons have gone missing... to be replaced by impostors... and I didn't want to face that.
I read an interesting short story last week about two people who get caught in a Time Loop. They are forced to repeat the same day over and over again. The physics of this (theoretical or invented, I'm not completely sure having not done any research) is quite intriguing. The Time Loop is centralized to their neighborhood. That is, the rest of the world is moving on quite normally but their neighborhood is isolated and forced into an infinitely repeating loop of one Thursday.
This starts to cause a build up of entropy and heat and things start to break down. Things don't really fall apart... they just disappear. Small things first - like papers, pens, etc. Then books, chairs. Eventually walls. There are holes in things. But not like holes you can see through or put a finger through... holes in the reality.
Then the same thing starts to happen to people. And the main character starts dreading waking up each Thursday morning. Because he doesn't know what will be different. What will be missing today? Who will be missing today?
The reason this story is so compelling - quite apart from the interesting physics and the suspenseful and evoking storyline - is that is exactly how I felt when I found out the demon names had been reset.
I didn't want to log in and discover my companions of several years were now gone. I didn't want to be another warlock posting in the lost and found:
"Have you seen my Flaag? He's a cantankerous dude with a huge axe, but he's been protecting me from Big and Scaries for 30 levels now."
"Missing: one dutiful felhunter named Shaan. Tries to eat Ice Barriers off me when I poke Sindragosa with a stick. Cannot finish ICC without him."
Its really very hard to explain, but this has devastated warlocks. The good news is the demon names will revert to what they were before the patch on the next maintenance day. The impostors are temporary.
I still don't know which of my demons are currently taking a vacation, but its a huge relief to know they will be coming home on Tuesday. It was better not knowing who was missing. It will be easier to face the impostors knowing that my minions will be back soon.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Sidetrip
Sorry, ICC is closed for renovations. No admittance.
Or, it could be and I wouldn't know the difference. Raid last night started auspiciously with our raid leader informing us that he was sick and would not be able to play. Puts us down either a tank or a healer right off the bat and is particularly inconvenient seeing as we... you know... rely on his leadership, being a raid leader and all.
I'm afraid you get a rather one-dimensional view of my fellow raiders when stories are told this way. Because Mord is also an incredibly sweet and supportive guy and signs off with things like "please don't hate me for not coming". So it sucks that he's ill on personal level; not a "dangit, now I can't raid" level.
The sad truth is, however, that raid night tends to fall apart when he's not there. This is probably not a healthy place for our guild to be in.
We thought we might tag along with Militia's other guild, because a couple of us had an ICC-lockout that had only Sindy and Arthas left to face. That had the potential to be awesome! Except that they weren't planning on sending invites until 10, whereas I usually pass out in front of my computer around 11/11:30. Sleep. It is important.
It later turned out that they went off to do Ulduar Hard Modes instead, anyway. To be fair, this is also something I would like to do. Though it looks about as unlikely as fighting Arthas.
Dru found out we weren't planning on tackling ICC right away and bailed to play on another character. This was rather disappointing to me on several levels. At the time we were still planning on getting a group together either to wipe against Sindragosa for a few hours or to start a fresh run.
I think this took the last bit of wind out of our sails. I spent some time following a stupid orc around while he throws stuff at me. This doesn't go so well for me. I hate that stupid quest.
"Prepare a funereal pyre! Marariel has challenged Skyshatter!"
I have nothing to say to you, Skyshatter. I hope you die.
And it sucks because this quest nets you a whopping 1000 reputation with the Netherwing. I need... less than that to hit exalted. I've done all my dailies for today and the only thing stopping me from getting my new shiny RIGHT NOW is a stupid orc with a totally unfair 310% flying speed. Haxx.
It's obviously time to do something else in wow. So, at myinsistence suggestion, we took everyone who was online to the Molten Core.
That's right. Good old Molten Core. The instance that took 40 level 60 players days to down. It's good for 11 bosses of varying (though seemingly simple) mechanics. At level 80, four people can take a leisurely (though lengthy) tour through the underground lava pits that house one of the elemental planes most fearsome denizens. Ragnaros.
This is largely the reason I wanted to make sure that MC is something I got done before the expansion hits. I don't know if it has been confirmed or not, but there's good reason to believe that Ragnaros will be packing it up and heading back home. Where he will magically gain 25 levels, a crapton of health and probably new and unique abilities with which to smash raids in the face.
The Eye of Divinity dropped from the Majordomo. This is one of the key ingredients to the Benediction staff and starts the beginning of a beautiful and sad quest. If you have to opportunity, I highly recommend taking your priest to complete this quest.
Other residents of the Core were kind enough to drop pieces of the Felheart Raiment. To be honest, I'm probably unreasonably excited about this. Especially since my bank is already cluttered with old quest items, cloth, enchanting mats, a set of Tier 9, and some handy off pieces (just in case). To add a set of Tier 1 (especially if I collected all 8 pieces) is a tad silly.
But, you know what? I am a tad silly. And I wanted it. I look lovely, right?
I also picked up a matching sword.
And Enchant Weapon: Spellpower. Actually useful for BoA items.
I find it amusing that the human character models look so terribly benign even with giant horns coming out of their heads. "Would you mind awfully if I stacked a few DOTs on you before applying my Shadowbolt to your face?"
Or, it could be and I wouldn't know the difference. Raid last night started auspiciously with our raid leader informing us that he was sick and would not be able to play. Puts us down either a tank or a healer right off the bat and is particularly inconvenient seeing as we... you know... rely on his leadership, being a raid leader and all.
I'm afraid you get a rather one-dimensional view of my fellow raiders when stories are told this way. Because Mord is also an incredibly sweet and supportive guy and signs off with things like "please don't hate me for not coming". So it sucks that he's ill on personal level; not a "dangit, now I can't raid" level.
The sad truth is, however, that raid night tends to fall apart when he's not there. This is probably not a healthy place for our guild to be in.
We thought we might tag along with Militia's other guild, because a couple of us had an ICC-lockout that had only Sindy and Arthas left to face. That had the potential to be awesome! Except that they weren't planning on sending invites until 10, whereas I usually pass out in front of my computer around 11/11:30. Sleep. It is important.
It later turned out that they went off to do Ulduar Hard Modes instead, anyway. To be fair, this is also something I would like to do. Though it looks about as unlikely as fighting Arthas.
Dru found out we weren't planning on tackling ICC right away and bailed to play on another character. This was rather disappointing to me on several levels. At the time we were still planning on getting a group together either to wipe against Sindragosa for a few hours or to start a fresh run.
I think this took the last bit of wind out of our sails. I spent some time following a stupid orc around while he throws stuff at me. This doesn't go so well for me. I hate that stupid quest.
"Prepare a funereal pyre! Marariel has challenged Skyshatter!"
I have nothing to say to you, Skyshatter. I hope you die.
And it sucks because this quest nets you a whopping 1000 reputation with the Netherwing. I need... less than that to hit exalted. I've done all my dailies for today and the only thing stopping me from getting my new shiny RIGHT NOW is a stupid orc with a totally unfair 310% flying speed. Haxx.
It's obviously time to do something else in wow. So, at my
That's right. Good old Molten Core. The instance that took 40 level 60 players days to down. It's good for 11 bosses of varying (though seemingly simple) mechanics. At level 80, four people can take a leisurely (though lengthy) tour through the underground lava pits that house one of the elemental planes most fearsome denizens. Ragnaros.
This is largely the reason I wanted to make sure that MC is something I got done before the expansion hits. I don't know if it has been confirmed or not, but there's good reason to believe that Ragnaros will be packing it up and heading back home. Where he will magically gain 25 levels, a crapton of health and probably new and unique abilities with which to smash raids in the face.
The Eye of Divinity dropped from the Majordomo. This is one of the key ingredients to the Benediction staff and starts the beginning of a beautiful and sad quest. If you have to opportunity, I highly recommend taking your priest to complete this quest.
Other residents of the Core were kind enough to drop pieces of the Felheart Raiment. To be honest, I'm probably unreasonably excited about this. Especially since my bank is already cluttered with old quest items, cloth, enchanting mats, a set of Tier 9, and some handy off pieces (just in case). To add a set of Tier 1 (especially if I collected all 8 pieces) is a tad silly.
But, you know what? I am a tad silly. And I wanted it. I look lovely, right?
I also picked up a matching sword.
And Enchant Weapon: Spellpower. Actually useful for BoA items.
I find it amusing that the human character models look so terribly benign even with giant horns coming out of their heads. "Would you mind awfully if I stacked a few DOTs on you before applying my Shadowbolt to your face?"
Thursday, August 26, 2010
The Line. I is Walking It.
A decent amount of the blogosphere is experiencing renewed interest in gender commentary. Gender issues always seem to be kind of a touchy subject and people either want to drive right in and dissect behaviors and stereotypes or they want to dance around the issue.
Forewarning: I'm one of those second types. I prefer to avoid stating strong opinions until I have enough to back myself up and if I think I'm likely to offend someone I prefer to say nothing at all. So if you want to really get into the issues with some people who seem to know what they're talking about and who are much more articulate than I, posts from Righteous Orbs, Bossy Pally, and 'Mental Shaman will all see you in the right direction.
I'm just going to talk about me. Because, you know, that's really what OP is here for. For me to talk about my experiences with that game we all love. WoW has it share of problems, like any other game/community/lifestyle (depending on which discussion you're currently involved in). But sometimes we let these problems distract us from our purpose in interacting with WoW; namely defeating fictional enemies through methods that provide us personal satisfaction. (Die INTERNET DRAGONS!)
I certainly don't say this to demean the gender discussions that others are currently having and that we may kinda-sorta touch on here. Maybe. I have always found gender discussions intriguing. Fascinating. It's something I like to read about or listen to but tend to feel vaguely distanced from.
I followed the discussions on RealID being forced on the forums avidly. When I first read the blue post the idea made me fairly uncomfortable but I didn't let it bother me overmuch. Everything they said sounded reasonable and I am all for getting rid of trolls on the forums. Of course, I wouldn't want my RealID posted for just anyone to see. But, I can also tell you that I've posted on the WoW forums exactly twice.
Then I started reading the replies to the Blue who so foolishly told everyone that publishing his real name was no big deal. Internet savvy posters had his home phone number, address, you name it in minutes. It was like a light clicking on, as I began to understand. I know there are people who can pull a picture your house with no more information than just your last name. I've watched them do it.
I know RealID is a bit tangential to the current topic and that the kind of people who would be interested in doing this sort of thing (apart from proving a point) don't usually need a reason to seek you out. However, a great number of replies to this issue centered around not wanting to share a real name because it would identify them as a woman. To be fair, a number of people also do not want to share their names because it identifies them as belonging to a certain ethnicity, but those discussions seem to be strangely absent.
I don't care if people know I'm a girl. I would care that they knew my real name. I would be perfectly happy to use a singular "alias" for posting on the forums and I don't doubt that the name I would pick would be noticeably feminine.
When I first started playing wow, I didn't hesitate to pick a character that looked like me. Marariel was, and is, my avatar for the WoW universe. She's a human female with dark hair and no bangs because I need to SEE what I'm shadow bolting thank you very much.
Since then I have added 8 other female characters on my home realm. One male character. Chas, over at Righteous Orbs, got into the interesting subject of how unrealistic the male character models tend to be. This is what started me to thinking about my lone male character on Hydraxis. Mathias is a Blood Elf Hunter. He is intended to be a combination of strong and graceful. Despite his tendency to stand away from things and shoot them full of arrows, I've always liked the fact that he looked strong. And I believe that's because I built him as an older brother and protector to Shinai.
I don't want to get into issues about why I might feel Shinai needs a protector and that sort of gender-based conundrum. I can tell you the answer is simple. I created and played Shinai first and she felt like she needed protection. A mage at low levels seems particularly squishy and I got tired of dying but I still wanted to do the then-new-to-me Blood Elf starting zones.
Chas' discussion of character models led down an interesting path of guys playing girl characters and the guys who sometimes catch grief about it. Memento is not a very big guild and two of our main raiders are guys with at least one female raiding toon. And apart from a few minor inquiries ("Why are you playing a girl character?" "I dunno. I like it." "K. Cool.") most of us think nothing of it.
In our happy-meal-sized guild there are also two females in the raider core. We usually run with a female friend from another guild. And we have strong rules against discrimination of any sort.
I think the place that I'm trying to end up at is this: to an extent I think stereotypes affect you as much as you let them. That isn't to say there aren't sexist and racist people out there. There are. You take steps to protect yourself from them in game as you would outside of game by surrounding yourself with people you trust and not taking outlandish risks. At least, I hope you do.
The following, completely unrelated entertainment is for Ann. Sorry your day is long.
Shawty had them Apple Bottom Jeans
Boots with the fur
The whole club was lookin at her
Forewarning: I'm one of those second types. I prefer to avoid stating strong opinions until I have enough to back myself up and if I think I'm likely to offend someone I prefer to say nothing at all. So if you want to really get into the issues with some people who seem to know what they're talking about and who are much more articulate than I, posts from Righteous Orbs, Bossy Pally, and 'Mental Shaman will all see you in the right direction.
I'm just going to talk about me. Because, you know, that's really what OP is here for. For me to talk about my experiences with that game we all love. WoW has it share of problems, like any other game/community/lifestyle (depending on which discussion you're currently involved in). But sometimes we let these problems distract us from our purpose in interacting with WoW; namely defeating fictional enemies through methods that provide us personal satisfaction. (Die INTERNET DRAGONS!)
I certainly don't say this to demean the gender discussions that others are currently having and that we may kinda-sorta touch on here. Maybe. I have always found gender discussions intriguing. Fascinating. It's something I like to read about or listen to but tend to feel vaguely distanced from.
I followed the discussions on RealID being forced on the forums avidly. When I first read the blue post the idea made me fairly uncomfortable but I didn't let it bother me overmuch. Everything they said sounded reasonable and I am all for getting rid of trolls on the forums. Of course, I wouldn't want my RealID posted for just anyone to see. But, I can also tell you that I've posted on the WoW forums exactly twice.
Then I started reading the replies to the Blue who so foolishly told everyone that publishing his real name was no big deal. Internet savvy posters had his home phone number, address, you name it in minutes. It was like a light clicking on, as I began to understand. I know there are people who can pull a picture your house with no more information than just your last name. I've watched them do it.
I know RealID is a bit tangential to the current topic and that the kind of people who would be interested in doing this sort of thing (apart from proving a point) don't usually need a reason to seek you out. However, a great number of replies to this issue centered around not wanting to share a real name because it would identify them as a woman. To be fair, a number of people also do not want to share their names because it identifies them as belonging to a certain ethnicity, but those discussions seem to be strangely absent.
I don't care if people know I'm a girl. I would care that they knew my real name. I would be perfectly happy to use a singular "alias" for posting on the forums and I don't doubt that the name I would pick would be noticeably feminine.
When I first started playing wow, I didn't hesitate to pick a character that looked like me. Marariel was, and is, my avatar for the WoW universe. She's a human female with dark hair and no bangs because I need to SEE what I'm shadow bolting thank you very much.
Since then I have added 8 other female characters on my home realm. One male character. Chas, over at Righteous Orbs, got into the interesting subject of how unrealistic the male character models tend to be. This is what started me to thinking about my lone male character on Hydraxis. Mathias is a Blood Elf Hunter. He is intended to be a combination of strong and graceful. Despite his tendency to stand away from things and shoot them full of arrows, I've always liked the fact that he looked strong. And I believe that's because I built him as an older brother and protector to Shinai.
They look like siblings, right?
I don't want to get into issues about why I might feel Shinai needs a protector and that sort of gender-based conundrum. I can tell you the answer is simple. I created and played Shinai first and she felt like she needed protection. A mage at low levels seems particularly squishy and I got tired of dying but I still wanted to do the then-new-to-me Blood Elf starting zones.
Chas' discussion of character models led down an interesting path of guys playing girl characters and the guys who sometimes catch grief about it. Memento is not a very big guild and two of our main raiders are guys with at least one female raiding toon. And apart from a few minor inquiries ("Why are you playing a girl character?" "I dunno. I like it." "K. Cool.") most of us think nothing of it.
In our happy-meal-sized guild there are also two females in the raider core. We usually run with a female friend from another guild. And we have strong rules against discrimination of any sort.
I think the place that I'm trying to end up at is this: to an extent I think stereotypes affect you as much as you let them. That isn't to say there aren't sexist and racist people out there. There are. You take steps to protect yourself from them in game as you would outside of game by surrounding yourself with people you trust and not taking outlandish risks. At least, I hope you do.
The following, completely unrelated entertainment is for Ann. Sorry your day is long.
Shawty had them Apple Bottom JeansBoots with the fur
The whole club was lookin at her
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
New things are good, right?
Summer is drawing slowly to a close. People are finishing up their vacations and settling in for the long haul again. Memento is starting to look ahead to the next semester and the raid time adjustments that need to be made.
Our raid day and times seem to change so frequently, I guess it's sort of a good thing that the only people affected are people I can call up and discuss the problem with. When we recruited we found people for a particular day and time that no longer suits many of our members.
Currently our best times appear to be Wednesdays and Thursdays from 8-11. Too many people managed to get themselves signed up for Tuesday night classes. Wednesday isn't particularly convenient for me, I'll have to rush home from school, but I don't foresee it being a major problem. The updates here at OP will probably also change days accordingly. I like to be able to talk about raid the day after it happens.
Last night, of course, there was no raid. Hydraxis was on the 24-hour maintenance list. We're going to give our anticipated new schedule a trial run this week and see how it happens. I'm looking forward to jumping back into ICC tonight. Assuming our server-hamster is fully recovered, of course.
Being cut off from my usual server-home didn't stop me from playing. Ann, a casual RL friend Vandrellee, and myself trouped over to Ravencrest where another RL friend has a character. We started some new alts in the hope that we can all find some time to play together in the coming semester. It was an interesting experiment... casual RL friend #2 only plays hoard. And all the alts I've ever put any amount of time into are all alliance. Or Blood Elves. Do they really count?
Anyway, I have a new baby druid named Bersera. Thanks to the random name generator for that one. She's a very lovely cow.
Now that I've done the dps thing and the healing thing, I've been practically itching to try the tanking thing. Well, it's bound to happen now. If we get into nonsense with our new hoards it will be as a bear. (Vandy picked a hunter and Ann has a new shaman.) If we stay on the home server for our lulz, I have a paladin at just the right level. (Vandy is a rogue and Ann has a hunter.) So, be sure to send some pity towards Ann and Vandy for being my test subjects as I l2tank.
Better news? If we stick to the home server, we're staring Scarlet Monastery right in the face. I've certainly been there enough times, I think I could reasonably lead a group through there. It's going to be great.
Our raid day and times seem to change so frequently, I guess it's sort of a good thing that the only people affected are people I can call up and discuss the problem with. When we recruited we found people for a particular day and time that no longer suits many of our members.
Currently our best times appear to be Wednesdays and Thursdays from 8-11. Too many people managed to get themselves signed up for Tuesday night classes. Wednesday isn't particularly convenient for me, I'll have to rush home from school, but I don't foresee it being a major problem. The updates here at OP will probably also change days accordingly. I like to be able to talk about raid the day after it happens.
Last night, of course, there was no raid. Hydraxis was on the 24-hour maintenance list. We're going to give our anticipated new schedule a trial run this week and see how it happens. I'm looking forward to jumping back into ICC tonight. Assuming our server-hamster is fully recovered, of course.
Being cut off from my usual server-home didn't stop me from playing. Ann, a casual RL friend Vandrellee, and myself trouped over to Ravencrest where another RL friend has a character. We started some new alts in the hope that we can all find some time to play together in the coming semester. It was an interesting experiment... casual RL friend #2 only plays hoard. And all the alts I've ever put any amount of time into are all alliance. Or Blood Elves. Do they really count?
Anyway, I have a new baby druid named Bersera. Thanks to the random name generator for that one. She's a very lovely cow.
Now that I've done the dps thing and the healing thing, I've been practically itching to try the tanking thing. Well, it's bound to happen now. If we get into nonsense with our new hoards it will be as a bear. (Vandy picked a hunter and Ann has a new shaman.) If we stay on the home server for our lulz, I have a paladin at just the right level. (Vandy is a rogue and Ann has a hunter.) So, be sure to send some pity towards Ann and Vandy for being my test subjects as I l2tank.
Better news? If we stick to the home server, we're staring Scarlet Monastery right in the face. I've certainly been there enough times, I think I could reasonably lead a group through there. It's going to be great.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Blog Fail
Mara is on vacation. Weeee.
And no, I didn't write any back-up posts to schedule for this week. I am a fail blogger.
I hopped online during raid last night for awhile to scope out the latest drama. Of course there was some. I think I'd really rather just stay out of it. And I don't think OP will disintegrate if I leave out a little bit of Memento's Drama.
I went over to the Exodar and shoved cloth at them until they exalted me. It's the only advantage of having tons and tons Runecloth stocked up. Hail Ambassador Marariel. I guess if that's the only thing I accomplish while on vacation, it's still a worthy achievement.
While I was in the area, I did all the Azuremyst quests I could find. And I'm considering going over to Bloodmyst to do the same thing. Despite having two little dreanei alts, I have never done all of the dreanei starting area. This is not a prelude to a Loremaster attempt. At least, that's what I keep telling myself.
And no, I didn't write any back-up posts to schedule for this week. I am a fail blogger.
I hopped online during raid last night for awhile to scope out the latest drama. Of course there was some. I think I'd really rather just stay out of it. And I don't think OP will disintegrate if I leave out a little bit of Memento's Drama.
I went over to the Exodar and shoved cloth at them until they exalted me. It's the only advantage of having tons and tons Runecloth stocked up. Hail Ambassador Marariel. I guess if that's the only thing I accomplish while on vacation, it's still a worthy achievement.
While I was in the area, I did all the Azuremyst quests I could find. And I'm considering going over to Bloodmyst to do the same thing. Despite having two little dreanei alts, I have never done all of the dreanei starting area. This is not a prelude to a Loremaster attempt. At least, that's what I keep telling myself.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Summertime
Summer seems to be an interesting time for WoW. Students have considerably more free time, being free from school, yet guilds everywhere seem to be dragging a bit. A lot of people are attributing it to a pre-expansion lull. And though I was playing last summer, I don't remember enough to make a comparison. I didn't have any level 80 characters and I was working my first full-time, i-have-to-commute-every-day job.
Memento, too, is struggling. As I've mentioned, we have gained and lost players over the last few months. At our present moment in time, we've gained exactly one more player than we've lost. A slightly noobish paladin that happens to be the brother of some other player nobody in Memento can stand. Good times.
So, reduced to our core set of people, Memento is left in the position of pugging 2-4 raiders for anything we want to run. This is not a problem for the weekly and VoA runs. But lately it has been hard to pug spots for ICC.
Have so many people downed the Lich King that its not interesting anymore?
I don't know if this is due to a summer lull or pre-expansion jitters but I'm starting to wonder if I'm going to get to smack Arthas in the face sometime before I hit level 85.
Any pug can go 6/12 in ICC, I think. I mean, certainly if we can do it nobody else should find it terribly difficult. Don't get me wrong, we're good. But we're mostly dps. Picking up good tanks and healers is altogether a more difficult thing.
Also, the idea of there even being a pre-expansion "i have nothing to do" experience blows my mind a little. There's SO MUCH that I want to do before Cataclysm comes out that I don't even know where to start.
For example, all of the Vanilla Dungeons and Raids. I haven't done all of them. I hadn't even done most of them before a couple days ago. I mean, yeah, Aioka was randomed into most of them over the course of her leveling, but most of those never completed. Pugtards at levels 50-58 can't even follow basic directions.
So, I've seen... parts of them. Several bloggers recently have talked about how epic Blackrock Mountain is. Blackrock Depths in particular. So I took Mara and went off to pay Blackrock Mountain a visit. I was halfway through UBS before I remembered I had done it and Blackwing Lair before. So that only left the other two. Of course, Aioka randomed into both BRD and Lower Blackrock Spire several months ago. Doesn't mean I knew how to get around them. Because she was never in a group that completed them.
One particularly memorable event was in LBS. The group wiped to a bunch of dragonkin outside a locked door in the room to the left of the entrance. I now know that this section is the entrance to UBS and we had no business being there anyway, but at the time I just made the run back to Blackrock and waited for the rest of the group. And waited. And waited. After ten minutes or so the "Rez me" and "Res me, I'm lost" started coming in. And the reason I remember this so clearly is because NO ONE SAID 'PLEASE'. If they had, I probably would have done it. Even though I'm totally against it; if anyone had ASKED I would have cheerfully hunted down their broken corpse and shoved their spirit back into it just to continue this already clearly pointless adventure. When the tank, who apparently was smart enough to find the entrance, started in with "Why don't you just res them? ffs" I lost it. I ranted about the lack of courtesy on the internet and how impolite people are and how fucking lazy do you have to be to skip typing "pls" and I ragequit. I quit the game and turned my whole computer off because that's how DONE I was with Blackrock Mountain and retarded random groups.
I can admit now (now that I'm far enough removed from levels 50-60) that both BRD and LBS are epic. They have just a huge scope: they actually look like cities, there are a ton of bosses and mobs to kill, and the storylines that exist there are also pretty epic. The downside of these huge and involved instances is that I spent an unholy amount of time lost. Even with the advantages of the Dungeon Guide and, you know, the internet I had no idea where I was going or what I was doing.
When I got as far as the room outside of Emperor Dagran's room, Ann had to tell me about the two fire braziers that have to be lit within a certain amount of time or the doors won't open. Oh yeah, and the room is packed to the brim with non-elite mobs. This isn't too big a deal for a level 80 warlock who actively enjoys slaughtering things. We've all had those days, I think. And when all you want to do is kill things, wow certainly delivers.
When I finished with BRD, I went over and attuned myself to the Molten Core. I spent a few minutes staring in awe at the Black Forge. Then, because I'm lazy, I asked Ann to group up with me so I could walk into the portal to MC so that when I walked out again I would be back in Blackrock Mountain.
Well, Mord saw where I was headed and thought I was going to try that for my next solo project. He said it couldn't be done. Turns out, it can be done. (Youtube link: Ragnaros) Maybe not necessarily by me, but other warlocks have certainly tried and succeeded. Maybe I will give it a shot one day.
LBS was a bit easier in terms of getting around than BRD. I noticed that in LBS there's mostly only one route to follow. Any other route involves jumping down off bridges and stuff. Which is viable - or so I read. If all you want to do is kill Wyrmthalak, which is all you need for the achievement, you can skip most of everything else. It involves jumping off a ledge in one of the early rooms. If you're anything like me, you'll never find it.
Other things I'm trying to complete before Cataclysm include the Keymaster achievement and Karazhan (also soloable, I've heard). I've done all the Outland dungeons except the Shattered Halls. I've toyed with the idea of chasing the Loremaster achievement. But I haven't committed myself to it. Yet.
Memento, too, is struggling. As I've mentioned, we have gained and lost players over the last few months. At our present moment in time, we've gained exactly one more player than we've lost. A slightly noobish paladin that happens to be the brother of some other player nobody in Memento can stand. Good times.
So, reduced to our core set of people, Memento is left in the position of pugging 2-4 raiders for anything we want to run. This is not a problem for the weekly and VoA runs. But lately it has been hard to pug spots for ICC.
Have so many people downed the Lich King that its not interesting anymore?
I don't know if this is due to a summer lull or pre-expansion jitters but I'm starting to wonder if I'm going to get to smack Arthas in the face sometime before I hit level 85.
Any pug can go 6/12 in ICC, I think. I mean, certainly if we can do it nobody else should find it terribly difficult. Don't get me wrong, we're good. But we're mostly dps. Picking up good tanks and healers is altogether a more difficult thing.
Also, the idea of there even being a pre-expansion "i have nothing to do" experience blows my mind a little. There's SO MUCH that I want to do before Cataclysm comes out that I don't even know where to start.
For example, all of the Vanilla Dungeons and Raids. I haven't done all of them. I hadn't even done most of them before a couple days ago. I mean, yeah, Aioka was randomed into most of them over the course of her leveling, but most of those never completed. Pugtards at levels 50-58 can't even follow basic directions.
So, I've seen... parts of them. Several bloggers recently have talked about how epic Blackrock Mountain is. Blackrock Depths in particular. So I took Mara and went off to pay Blackrock Mountain a visit. I was halfway through UBS before I remembered I had done it and Blackwing Lair before. So that only left the other two. Of course, Aioka randomed into both BRD and Lower Blackrock Spire several months ago. Doesn't mean I knew how to get around them. Because she was never in a group that completed them.
One particularly memorable event was in LBS. The group wiped to a bunch of dragonkin outside a locked door in the room to the left of the entrance. I now know that this section is the entrance to UBS and we had no business being there anyway, but at the time I just made the run back to Blackrock and waited for the rest of the group. And waited. And waited. After ten minutes or so the "Rez me" and "Res me, I'm lost" started coming in. And the reason I remember this so clearly is because NO ONE SAID 'PLEASE'. If they had, I probably would have done it. Even though I'm totally against it; if anyone had ASKED I would have cheerfully hunted down their broken corpse and shoved their spirit back into it just to continue this already clearly pointless adventure. When the tank, who apparently was smart enough to find the entrance, started in with "Why don't you just res them? ffs" I lost it. I ranted about the lack of courtesy on the internet and how impolite people are and how fucking lazy do you have to be to skip typing "pls" and I ragequit. I quit the game and turned my whole computer off because that's how DONE I was with Blackrock Mountain and retarded random groups.
I can admit now (now that I'm far enough removed from levels 50-60) that both BRD and LBS are epic. They have just a huge scope: they actually look like cities, there are a ton of bosses and mobs to kill, and the storylines that exist there are also pretty epic. The downside of these huge and involved instances is that I spent an unholy amount of time lost. Even with the advantages of the Dungeon Guide and, you know, the internet I had no idea where I was going or what I was doing.
When I got as far as the room outside of Emperor Dagran's room, Ann had to tell me about the two fire braziers that have to be lit within a certain amount of time or the doors won't open. Oh yeah, and the room is packed to the brim with non-elite mobs. This isn't too big a deal for a level 80 warlock who actively enjoys slaughtering things. We've all had those days, I think. And when all you want to do is kill things, wow certainly delivers.
When I finished with BRD, I went over and attuned myself to the Molten Core. I spent a few minutes staring in awe at the Black Forge. Then, because I'm lazy, I asked Ann to group up with me so I could walk into the portal to MC so that when I walked out again I would be back in Blackrock Mountain.
Well, Mord saw where I was headed and thought I was going to try that for my next solo project. He said it couldn't be done. Turns out, it can be done. (Youtube link: Ragnaros) Maybe not necessarily by me, but other warlocks have certainly tried and succeeded. Maybe I will give it a shot one day.
LBS was a bit easier in terms of getting around than BRD. I noticed that in LBS there's mostly only one route to follow. Any other route involves jumping down off bridges and stuff. Which is viable - or so I read. If all you want to do is kill Wyrmthalak, which is all you need for the achievement, you can skip most of everything else. It involves jumping off a ledge in one of the early rooms. If you're anything like me, you'll never find it.
Other things I'm trying to complete before Cataclysm include the Keymaster achievement and Karazhan (also soloable, I've heard). I've done all the Outland dungeons except the Shattered Halls. I've toyed with the idea of chasing the Loremaster achievement. But I haven't committed myself to it. Yet.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Have I done this the wrong way?
There was no post on Monday because I wanted to wait until I had something to say that wasn't: "This one guy in my guild did something that I considered to be full of douchebaggery and it hurt my feelings. Wah."
Especially since blogging about one's guild has been such a hot topic recently.
So, this post was inspired by a situation that a fellow blogger went through with her guild. The important, thought provoking post can be read here while all the details can be read about on her blog Righteous Orbs.
Many bloggers feel that keeping their in-game persona and their blog persona separate is necessary for the well being of themselves and their guild. Many don't advertise their blog to their guild for fear that something they say will be bring down the WRATH of the guild. Or, alternatively, that someone in the guild may receive an undeserved reputation because of what has been written about them in a blog.
Thus far, and from this perspective, I have been remarkably rude in regards to my blog. I make no attempt at being anonymous. I will proudly tell you who I am, where to find me, and which other people I'm likely to be spending my time with in-game. I frequently discuss our (mis)adventures in Azeroth. I don't have any qualms about stating who failed at what and when. Although, I do think I need to update the frequency in which I include myself in 'X failed at Y'.
If I didn't tell some of my guild members about my blog, my readership would be 0 (instead of 3). And I have no problems if these guildies feel like sharing the link with others. There is only one member of my guild who I might worry about offending. And he knows I love him irl, despite our frequent disagreements in Azeroth.
So my question, essentially, is: Am I failing at blogging? I recognize that, at the very least, I should ask my guildies permission before I start discussing them in such a publicly available venue. Instead of inviting some of my guildies to look in on my little corner of the interweb, should I have remained anonymous? How much does the situation change when your guildies are people you know and see everyday?
Especially since blogging about one's guild has been such a hot topic recently.
So, this post was inspired by a situation that a fellow blogger went through with her guild. The important, thought provoking post can be read here while all the details can be read about on her blog Righteous Orbs.
Many bloggers feel that keeping their in-game persona and their blog persona separate is necessary for the well being of themselves and their guild. Many don't advertise their blog to their guild for fear that something they say will be bring down the WRATH of the guild. Or, alternatively, that someone in the guild may receive an undeserved reputation because of what has been written about them in a blog.
Thus far, and from this perspective, I have been remarkably rude in regards to my blog. I make no attempt at being anonymous. I will proudly tell you who I am, where to find me, and which other people I'm likely to be spending my time with in-game. I frequently discuss our (mis)adventures in Azeroth. I don't have any qualms about stating who failed at what and when. Although, I do think I need to update the frequency in which I include myself in 'X failed at Y'.
If I didn't tell some of my guild members about my blog, my readership would be 0 (instead of 3). And I have no problems if these guildies feel like sharing the link with others. There is only one member of my guild who I might worry about offending. And he knows I love him irl, despite our frequent disagreements in Azeroth.
So my question, essentially, is: Am I failing at blogging? I recognize that, at the very least, I should ask my guildies permission before I start discussing them in such a publicly available venue. Instead of inviting some of my guildies to look in on my little corner of the interweb, should I have remained anonymous? How much does the situation change when your guildies are people you know and see everyday?
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
The Raid that Wasn't
We didn't manage to get a group together for Naxxramas on Raid night. Too many of our players had real life aggro. Healers sick or with broken computers, dps sick, etc. It happens.
Instead, we held tank tests for Batra and Takkarian. SURPRISE. Batra made it to the def cap. Much congratulations.
I think Takk is even more excited than Batra, lol. Takk says he still doesn't want to tank, even though we generally prefer him.
But anyway, Militia says that anyone who can tank Pit of Saron should be able to handle Naxx in their sleep. Based on stats anyway, completely disregarding the coordination and such that is par for the course in Naxx. So we all sign up for H PoS with Militia dps'ing and we get a random healer and off we go.
It goes... better than last time? When Ann and I did it with Batra a couple weeks ago, it went terribly. This time, we survived Garfrost and Ick even though we wiped a couple times. Then we went on to wipe on trash. Several times.
Militia took over for the run through the gauntlet.
Tyrannius gets downed, everybody is happy. We only had 4 or 5 different healers quit on us. But... Batra didn't pass.
Now, there's a huge difference (in my opinion) between H PoS and Naxxramas. So I'm not sure we established anything other than Batra isn't quite yet ready to tank H PoS. But Militia was able to offer many helpful tips as an experienced tank.
Half of which I'm sure went in one ear and out the other as far as Batra was concerned.
I don't think this has been mentioned yet, so here it is: I love having Militia as our raid leader.
Instead, we held tank tests for Batra and Takkarian. SURPRISE. Batra made it to the def cap. Much congratulations.
I think Takk is even more excited than Batra, lol. Takk says he still doesn't want to tank, even though we generally prefer him.
But anyway, Militia says that anyone who can tank Pit of Saron should be able to handle Naxx in their sleep. Based on stats anyway, completely disregarding the coordination and such that is par for the course in Naxx. So we all sign up for H PoS with Militia dps'ing and we get a random healer and off we go.
It goes... better than last time? When Ann and I did it with Batra a couple weeks ago, it went terribly. This time, we survived Garfrost and Ick even though we wiped a couple times. Then we went on to wipe on trash. Several times.
Militia took over for the run through the gauntlet.
Tyrannius gets downed, everybody is happy. We only had 4 or 5 different healers quit on us. But... Batra didn't pass.
Now, there's a huge difference (in my opinion) between H PoS and Naxxramas. So I'm not sure we established anything other than Batra isn't quite yet ready to tank H PoS. But Militia was able to offer many helpful tips as an experienced tank.
Half of which I'm sure went in one ear and out the other as far as Batra was concerned.
I don't think this has been mentioned yet, so here it is: I love having Militia as our raid leader.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Small Progress
It's still not official, but our guild night is going to be Tuesdays. Either from 9-12 or 10-1. It's not perfect for everyone, but I think its the best I can do. Although, Batra did point out that Sundays may be an option. I didn't want to do a weekend time, but I suppose its feasible.
Batra, one of our council members, has been looking into getting a vent server for us. That should be interesting! I'm hoping he can also put us in contact with some healers who would be interested in raiding with us.
The problem I foresee happening, is that most people won't want to start where we would like to start. Sen and I would like to start with some of the old BC raids, just to get a feel for raiding. Especially if we manage to collect a regular group. I think it would behoove us to do some easy-mode stuff so we can see how we'll work together as a team. Of course, I haven't posed this idea to the rest of the guild, so we'll see what happens.
Ran a decent number of heroics over the weekend. Nothing from my list dropped, but I did find a decent upgrade for one of my rings as well as a small upgrade for my dagger. Made it to Revered with the Wyrmrest Accord, which was my goal. Now I'll start with the Kirin Tor for awhile. Also started the Argent Tournament stuff. That will be fun. :)
Purchased Mara's dual spec. Now its time to save up for fast flying. I want to be able to use that mount from H CoS when I get it.
Classes officially resume today, so time may be limited from here on out. I'm hoping, though, that I'll have something new to report at least once a week.
Batra, one of our council members, has been looking into getting a vent server for us. That should be interesting! I'm hoping he can also put us in contact with some healers who would be interested in raiding with us.
The problem I foresee happening, is that most people won't want to start where we would like to start. Sen and I would like to start with some of the old BC raids, just to get a feel for raiding. Especially if we manage to collect a regular group. I think it would behoove us to do some easy-mode stuff so we can see how we'll work together as a team. Of course, I haven't posed this idea to the rest of the guild, so we'll see what happens.
Ran a decent number of heroics over the weekend. Nothing from my list dropped, but I did find a decent upgrade for one of my rings as well as a small upgrade for my dagger. Made it to Revered with the Wyrmrest Accord, which was my goal. Now I'll start with the Kirin Tor for awhile. Also started the Argent Tournament stuff. That will be fun. :)
Purchased Mara's dual spec. Now its time to save up for fast flying. I want to be able to use that mount from H CoS when I get it.
Classes officially resume today, so time may be limited from here on out. I'm hoping, though, that I'll have something new to report at least once a week.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Firsts
To start I want to say: I love being 80! I thought I would miss leveling. Sounds silly, I know, but I thought I would. But I sure don't so far.
Last night, Sen and I queued for a random heroic dungeon and got Culling of Stratholme. It was:
A - The first time I had done any heroic Wrath dungeon.
B - The first time I had done CoS.
It was also totally awesome. We finished quickly enough for the mount to drop (I didn't win. Maybe next time?), even after our first healer left because our rogue was skinning everything in sight.
I made a list of gear that I need to get in order to be raid-ready. (Yes, I'm that much of a nerd.) And by 'I made a list', I mean 'I relied heavily on the suggestions made by the Warlock's Den'. It's pretty basic at this point. First priority is to get to the hit cap. Then, stack as much spellpower as possible. Because, if you're going to raid Meta/Ruin and not take crap from your leader or companions, you better be able to deliver Demonic Pact in a big way.
Anyway, last night I got my first two pieces off the list. One of them I bought (30g is so freaking cheap at this point, I bought two of them), the other I made (Shadoweave Tailoring ftw). I still have a long way to go, of course, but its a start!
Finally, I think the guildies have settled on Tuesdays, 9-12. It's a decent compromise for everyone involved.
Last night, Sen and I queued for a random heroic dungeon and got Culling of Stratholme. It was:
A - The first time I had done any heroic Wrath dungeon.
B - The first time I had done CoS.
It was also totally awesome. We finished quickly enough for the mount to drop (I didn't win. Maybe next time?), even after our first healer left because our rogue was skinning everything in sight.
I made a list of gear that I need to get in order to be raid-ready. (Yes, I'm that much of a nerd.) And by 'I made a list', I mean 'I relied heavily on the suggestions made by the Warlock's Den'. It's pretty basic at this point. First priority is to get to the hit cap. Then, stack as much spellpower as possible. Because, if you're going to raid Meta/Ruin and not take crap from your leader or companions, you better be able to deliver Demonic Pact in a big way.
Anyway, last night I got my first two pieces off the list. One of them I bought (30g is so freaking cheap at this point, I bought two of them), the other I made (Shadoweave Tailoring ftw). I still have a long way to go, of course, but its a start!
Finally, I think the guildies have settled on Tuesdays, 9-12. It's a decent compromise for everyone involved.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
DING
Marariel hit level 80 last night!
There have been three of us racing to get to 80 before classes resume next week. With one other, we form the leading Council for Memento Mori. Batra hit 80 ages ago; but Ann and I dinged last night! It was very exciting. Our guild master, Sen, should hit 80 today. For the first time in a long time, all our council members will be on the same level. :)
So now its time to start looking at farming heroics and high level crafting items to start getting/making the gear we need to start raiding. For me, its time to start building up gold to purchase epic flying and Mara's dual-spec. And its way past time to level my enchanting profession.
No concrete word from the guildies as to which night of the week would be best for all of us to be online at the same time. We're currently looking at Tuesdays from 7pm to 10pm or Wednesdays from 9pm to 12pm. Tuesday is a problem for one of our council members and Wednesday is a problem for one of our other members. And one of our council members has yet to give his opinion on the matter. I'm enjoying myself, though, I like this organizing stuff!
There have been three of us racing to get to 80 before classes resume next week. With one other, we form the leading Council for Memento Mori. Batra hit 80 ages ago; but Ann and I dinged last night! It was very exciting. Our guild master, Sen, should hit 80 today. For the first time in a long time, all our council members will be on the same level. :)
So now its time to start looking at farming heroics and high level crafting items to start getting/making the gear we need to start raiding. For me, its time to start building up gold to purchase epic flying and Mara's dual-spec. And its way past time to level my enchanting profession.
No concrete word from the guildies as to which night of the week would be best for all of us to be online at the same time. We're currently looking at Tuesdays from 7pm to 10pm or Wednesdays from 9pm to 12pm. Tuesday is a problem for one of our council members and Wednesday is a problem for one of our other members. And one of our council members has yet to give his opinion on the matter. I'm enjoying myself, though, I like this organizing stuff!
Monday, January 4, 2010
Introduction by way of Review Meme
Greetings! I'm Mara, and this blog is going to be my tale from fresh 80 to (hopefully) successful raider. Because my blog is starting at the same time as 2010, I thought this Review Meme would be an appropriate introduction. Found at BlogAzeroth.
What did you do in the World of Warcraft in 2009 that you'd never done before?
Participated in a world event enough to get the achievement 'Noblegardner' and my first title: "Marariel the Noble". The most difficult thing about it was trying to put the bunny ears on all the different races. I spent a lot of times outside the crossroads, hoping the right races (and gender!) would come by, before I gave up and bought a port to Dalaran.
What was your favorite new place that you visited?
Storm Peaks. I greatly enjoyed flying around and discovering everything on the map. So many times I had to stop and take screenshots because things were so interesting. And shiny; especially at the tops of the temples.
What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
A night that is specifically for my guild. Eventually this would be raid night; but in the meantime it would just be a night for my guildies and I to all be online hanging out, running dungeons, and helping our lower level members. We would also like to form an alliance with another guild looking for a mature, easy-going raid environment. At the present, Memento Mori is formed of people who know each other in some way. However, we are scattered all over the place. A night just for us would help us to stay connected during school times.
What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Progressing as far as I did, lol! I can be a bit a.d.d. when it comes to WoW. Some days I'm all about leveling my main, but others I just want to work on professions. Or I want to pull out another character and work on them for awhile. My biggest achievement was getting Mara to 78, while also leveling a paladin to 33 and a priest to 46, and while getting my DK's professions to 300+.
What was your biggest failure?
Not sticking to goals I had previously set for myself. We wanted to get our guild off the ground in the summer of 2009. This means: establishing our ranks and particular rules, getting our guild bank organized, recruiting, and building the guild website. We didn't get past establishing ranks and rules. Also, I wanted to hit 80!
What did you get really, really, really excited about?
The quest chains in Northrend. They're all really interesting and they really match up with the story of Arthas. The details they put into the quests and showing the history of what happened in Northrend has been incredible. It's sparked some interesting questions and debate as well. My roommates and I have even sat around the table discussing the moral implications of the Culling of Stratholme.
What do you wish you'd done less of?
I wish I had created less deathknights. I've played through their starting area almost four complete times. Twice because friends of mine have refused to switch servers, so if I wanted to play with them I needed a character on their server. Callaan went really well: I leveled her out of Archerus and started her on mining. By the time she went to Outlands she already had enough money from selling ore and bars to buy her flying mount. That was all really awesome until my friend cancelled his account. Now it just looks like a huge waste of time. Le sigh.
What was your favorite WoW blog or podcast?
Kungaloosh by Abi. The Lrn2Meta guide has been absolutely instrumental in planning my spec for endgame and for learning about why particular talents are better than others. And gemming. That was an important lesson. :) Kungaloosh also introduced me to many many other blogs that have been helpful and entertaining.
Tell us a valuable WoW lesson you learned in 2009.
Patience is essential for everything you do. Sometimes your tank is not very good, or your healer is not paying attention, or the dps attracts about 30 more mobs to play with. Patience and communication goes a long way towards regrouping and completing the goal.
What did you do in the World of Warcraft in 2009 that you'd never done before?
Participated in a world event enough to get the achievement 'Noblegardner' and my first title: "Marariel the Noble". The most difficult thing about it was trying to put the bunny ears on all the different races. I spent a lot of times outside the crossroads, hoping the right races (and gender!) would come by, before I gave up and bought a port to Dalaran.
What was your favorite new place that you visited?
Storm Peaks. I greatly enjoyed flying around and discovering everything on the map. So many times I had to stop and take screenshots because things were so interesting. And shiny; especially at the tops of the temples.
What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
A night that is specifically for my guild. Eventually this would be raid night; but in the meantime it would just be a night for my guildies and I to all be online hanging out, running dungeons, and helping our lower level members. We would also like to form an alliance with another guild looking for a mature, easy-going raid environment. At the present, Memento Mori is formed of people who know each other in some way. However, we are scattered all over the place. A night just for us would help us to stay connected during school times.
What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Progressing as far as I did, lol! I can be a bit a.d.d. when it comes to WoW. Some days I'm all about leveling my main, but others I just want to work on professions. Or I want to pull out another character and work on them for awhile. My biggest achievement was getting Mara to 78, while also leveling a paladin to 33 and a priest to 46, and while getting my DK's professions to 300+.
What was your biggest failure?
Not sticking to goals I had previously set for myself. We wanted to get our guild off the ground in the summer of 2009. This means: establishing our ranks and particular rules, getting our guild bank organized, recruiting, and building the guild website. We didn't get past establishing ranks and rules. Also, I wanted to hit 80!
What did you get really, really, really excited about?
The quest chains in Northrend. They're all really interesting and they really match up with the story of Arthas. The details they put into the quests and showing the history of what happened in Northrend has been incredible. It's sparked some interesting questions and debate as well. My roommates and I have even sat around the table discussing the moral implications of the Culling of Stratholme.
What do you wish you'd done less of?
I wish I had created less deathknights. I've played through their starting area almost four complete times. Twice because friends of mine have refused to switch servers, so if I wanted to play with them I needed a character on their server. Callaan went really well: I leveled her out of Archerus and started her on mining. By the time she went to Outlands she already had enough money from selling ore and bars to buy her flying mount. That was all really awesome until my friend cancelled his account. Now it just looks like a huge waste of time. Le sigh.
What was your favorite WoW blog or podcast?
Kungaloosh by Abi. The Lrn2Meta guide has been absolutely instrumental in planning my spec for endgame and for learning about why particular talents are better than others. And gemming. That was an important lesson. :) Kungaloosh also introduced me to many many other blogs that have been helpful and entertaining.
Tell us a valuable WoW lesson you learned in 2009.
Patience is essential for everything you do. Sometimes your tank is not very good, or your healer is not paying attention, or the dps attracts about 30 more mobs to play with. Patience and communication goes a long way towards regrouping and completing the goal.
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